1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a method of producing novel foods, and more particularly to a method of producing, by using vegetable protein, meat-like protein foods having textures and mouth feeling similar to those of meats.
2. Description of the Related Art
There have been various conventional methods of producing meat-like protein foods by using vegetable protein, in particular, soybean protein, to which extrusion cooking techniques are applied.
For example, methods of producing protein foods, which are characterized by controlling the ratio of materials to be supplied into an extruder, are disclosed in Jap. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 64-30543 ("method of producing a textured soybean protein"), Jap. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 63-14663 ("method of producing meat-like fibrous foods"), and Jap. Pat. Appln. KOKOKU Publication No. 2-26950 ("extruded protein product").
A method of producing protein foods, which is characterized by driving an extruder under specified conditions, is disclosed, for example, in Jap. Pat. Appln. KOKOKU Publication No. 3-11749.
A method of producing protein foods, wherein materials are subjected to an extrusion process to have a relatively high water content, is disclosed, for example, in Jap. Pat. Appln. KOKOKU Publication No. 51-12695 ("flavorous meat-like protein") and Jap. Pat. Appln. KOKOKU Publication No. 62-34375 ("method of producing meat-like soft vegetable protein materials").
The protein foods produced by these methods, however, do not have textures and tastes of meats. In order to solve this problem, Jap. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 4-228037 ("method of producing food material") discloses a method of producing food materials, wherein orientation of fibers similar to meats is obtained.
According to the method of Jap. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 4-228037, at first, a material consisting substantially of soybean protein and water is supplied into an extruder and subjected to an extrusion process. Water is added to the resultant fiber-textured soybean protein with a relatively low water content (hereinafter referred to as "low water content TSP"), thereby swelling the low water content TSP. While the low water content TSP is being swelled, it is washed several times and loosen. Thus, a fibrous water-containing matter is obtained. The fibrous water-containing matter is pressurized and dehydrated, thereby producing a lump-like fibrous matter with fibrous orientation perpendicular to the direction of applied pressure. The lump-like fibrous matter is heated while it is pressurized. Thereby, the fibrous matter is solidified and a food material having meat-like fibrous orientation is obtained.
However, the thus produced food material does not have delicate texture and taste similar to meats.
Moreover, in a secondary process, water is added to the low water content TSP obtained by the extrusion process, and the low water content TSP is washed repeatedly and loosen to such a degree that its original shape is lost. In order to obtain meat-like complex texture orientation, the resultant matter is dehydrated. Then, in order to fix the texture orientation, the resultant matter is heated. Accordingly, the manufacturing process of the food materials is complex and time-consuming.